Tag Archive for Ellenberger

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returned to the hurt business last Sat. night (Aug., 25, 2018) with UFC Fight Night 135 from inside inside Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska, airing live and free on FOX Sports 1, and now it’s time to see who went home with the biggest piece of the Reebok pie.

Leading the list of payouts was Jake Ellenberger, who racked up one final sponsorship check of $ 20,000 after getting knocked out by Bryan Barberena in the very first round in what proved to be his final fight of his career (recap here). Rani Yahya, meanwhile, also took home $ 20,000 from Reebok after submitting Luke Sanders.

The biggest winner of the night, Justin Gathje, only managed to collect a $ 4,000 check from the sports apparel giant following his first-round drubbing of James Vick ($ 10,000) in the headlining bout (relive it here).

But that’s not all. Take a look at the rest of the Reebok payouts courtesy of MMA Junkie.

According to the payout structure (see it), the more fights you have combined with UFC and the now-defunct World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and Strikeforce promotions, the more coin you have for your combat sports piggy bank. And the less fights you have under the ZUFFA banner … well, the less you get. If you have a problem with the structure, take it up with UFC … not Reebok.

According to the report, fighters will also receive royalty and payments up to 20-30 percent of any UFC-related merchandise sold that bears his or her likeness. That’s a great way for the Internet “morons” to help the cause.

For a guy who is 2-8 over his last 10 fights — getting finished six times along the way — you would expect maybe a softer approach when assessing what went wrong. Instead, Jake Ellenberger simply s—t all over his last opponent because it probably makes him feel better about losing.

The fighter in question is Ben Saunders, The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 6 grad who also made a name for himself in Bellator MMA. I guess the idea of losing to “Killa B” at UFC Utica by way of knockout is too much for “The Juggernaut” to process, judging by his comments to Submission Radio.

Here’s a snip:

“I should never lose to a guy like Ben Saunders. Ben Saunders is not… he’s not a world-class fighter. That’s just not a guy I should ever lose to. I shouldn’t lose to him on my worst day. Like, that’s just me being real. And I would tell him that to his face. I am a hundred times better fighter than he is. And he knows that. But at the end of the day I fucking got lazy, I got complacent, he caught me. I wouldn’t say I looked past him, but I had no respect for him. Literally, I had no respect for him. And I was kind of like, the longer this fight goes the better. I hope it goes three rounds. I don’t even care. Like I said, I got comfortable, I got complacent in his clinch and he only just touched me, caught me, that’s all it was. But it is what it is.”

Ellenberger (31-14) will have the opportunity to snap his three-fight losing streak when he battles the venerable Bryan Barberena at the upcoming UFC Fight Night 135 event on FOX Sports 1, scheduled for Aug. 25, 2018 inside Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.

A loss could mean the inevitable pink slip.

As for Saunders (22-9-2), he looks to build on his “Juggernaut” win by taking on dangerous Brazilian bruiser Sergio Moraes at the pending UFC Fight Night 137 fight card next month inside Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, also on FOX Sports 1.

At last night’s (Sat., Dec. 3, 2016) Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 24 Finale, Jorge Masvidal picked up his second straight win in pretty bizarre fashion as he was awarded a tehcnical knockout victory over Jake Ellenberger after “Juggernaut’s” foot got caught in the Octagon.

In what was a first inside the eight-walled cage, the win was awarded to “Gamebred” after official Herb Dean got clarification from cage-side officials that Jake simply couldn’t defend himself.

As Masvidal sees it, while unfortunate for Jake, had he not played defense by moving and avoiding his attempted strike, the tides could’ve easily turned into his foes’ favor.

“It is what it is,” he said. “You were going for a technique, and had I not (avoided it), your technique could have put me out of commission,” stated Masvidal during the post-fight presser via MMA Junkie.

Admittedly, Jorge wasn’t too sure at the moment why Jake halted the action, saying that if he was trying to call a timeout, it’s not something he was prepared to stop for, since he was in full attack mode.

“How could you – if that would’ve been a timeout, that would have been the weirdest thing ever,” he said. “I’m about to kill you. How are you going to just call timeout? That’s weird, you know?”

At the end of the day, “Gambred” has tons of respect for Ellenberger, though he nor anyone else in the division possess the heart and will to win that Masvidal has.

“He’s always had my respect,” Masvidal said. “I’ve got to talk a little shit to get in his head, but he’s a tough dude. It’s not that he doesn’t have heart. It’s just I know when it comes to me, I’m going to eat him alive. I’ve got three times the heart he’s got – or anybody in this division.”

Forgive Masvidal for looking into the future a bit, though. The American Top Team product has had four ranked opponents pulled from him by the UFC in recent years. The latest was Kelvin Gastelum, who Masvidal was supposed to fight last month in Mexico City.

Gastelum was yanked from that fight to face Donald Cerrone at UFC 205 in New York. That contest never happened, because Gastelum was unable to make weight.

“I never think past any man, because every guy has two hands and every dude wants to hurt you,” Masvidal told MMA Fighting. “But god willing and I get this victory, I want to whoop Donald Cerrone’s ass. I don’t say I want to compete with him, because I don’t. I want to whoop his ass. He took Kelvin Gastelum from me and put lies to the public, that he’d fight anybody, any place.”

Masvidal (30-11) said Cerrone had the option to face him after Gastelum fell off. Instead, Cerrone will take on Matt Brown at UFC 206 on Dec. 10 in Toronto. Masvidal, of course, was already booked against Ellenberger. But, on the other hand, Gastelum was booked against Masvidal before that fight was scrapped.

“Right after [Cerrone's] fight got dropped, I put my name in there,” Masvidal said. “My name was on the table. He chose Matt Brown, the guy that almost got assassinated on national TV. He chose that fight. Why? I wonder why he chose that fight over me.”

The guy who knocked Brown out at UFC 201 in July was Ellenberger, who will be across the Octagon from Masvidal on Friday night. This wasn’t the matchup Masvidal wanted. He doesn’t think a win would elevate him in the rankings as much as a win over Gastelum would have.

“I was gonna fight No. 5 in the world,” Masvidal said. “Now I’m fighting, I think he’s No. 15 in the world. So obviously it’s not the matchup I would have preferred, but this is obviously as good as it gets for me right now. This is the cream of the crop for me right now. So I’ve gotta take it and keep moving forward.”

Ellenberger (31-11) is a unique challenge. He’s physically gifted, a good wrestler and has some of the best one-punch knockout power in the division. Consistency has been an issue recently for Ellenberger, but when he’s on, he’s flat-out scary. Masvidal believes he knows why Ellenberger has been up and down over the last few years.

“I know exactly what I’m gonna get — I’m gonna get that post-USADA dude,” Masvidal said. “I’ve never been a dude that has relied on anything that USADA has a problem with. The things that I rely on, USADA doesn’t have a problem with them. I’m gonna continue to be the same athlete that I’ve always been.”

In Masvidal’s perfect world, he beats Ellenberger this weekend, gets a spot in the UFC’s top-15 rankings, and then gets the bout he’s been seeking against Cerrone.

“That’s just the fight I want,” Masvidal said. “I want to expose him to the real truth. He thinks he’s gonna fight whoever they put in front of him. My name gets brought up, he’s like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to fight that dude.’ I’m sick and tired of that sh*t, you know what I’m saying?”